Betrothed Episode One

  Chapter 11

  Lieutenant Mark Havelock

  “I’ve got it. I understand.” I clenched my hands into tighter and tighter fists as I stared at the wall.

  “Act now. No more mistakes,” the loud guttural voice of my employer rang through my small room.

  I was glad they couldn’t see me. Glad because I twisted my already stiff face into an expression of pure loathing.

  If I didn’t believe in the cause – and I didn’t need them to complete it – I would walk away.

  But I needed them. And they needed her.

  “No more mistakes,” they repeated, their usually gravelly voice pitching high like screeching metal about to break.

  “I’ve got it,” I tried to keep my tone neutral, but it was impossible.

  “Gain back her trust.”

  “That may not be possible.”

  “Do it,” they commanded me.

  I let out a silent snarl. “Fine,” I could barely move my jaw let alone my stiff white lips.

  “We must gain her trust before the alignment.”

  “And if that doesn’t work?” I should have kept my misgivings to myself, but I couldn’t. Not in my current mood. If the audio feed wasn’t quite so accurate, I would ball up a fist and punch the wall.

  “Capture her. We will do the rest.”

  I let out a tight breath. “Fine.”

  “Do not fail us,” they warned.

  “I won’t.” What I really wanted to do was return the threat. If they couldn’t uphold their side of the bargain, they’d be dead. I had enough contacts in the Forces and the government to track them down wherever they were.

  The audio feed cut out with a distinct hum, and I was finally free to punch the wall.

  I balled up my fist and struck the metal, my knuckles indenting into it as if it was nothing but butter.

  The cybernetic implants grafted into my body ensured a little thing like a solid metal wall couldn’t get in my way.

  And yet, Anna Carter could. Simple, little, cute, irritating… Anna Carter.

  The key to everything I had worked my entire life for.

  She’d escaped. Escaped under my watch. Now I had no idea where she was. If I didn’t get to her in time, everything could be lost.

  Truth be told, I didn’t know how she fitted into this. I knew she was important, and now I knew she was betrothed to Illuminate Hart too – a surprise that had nearly floored me. But there was something else going on here.

  When we’d held her for a week, we’d been instructed to run tests. The doctors had known more than me, but I fancied even they hadn’t known what they were looking for.

  Something was happening with little Annie – something huge.

  I didn’t know the full details; I just had to find her.

  With another guttural scream, I brought my fist back and punched the wall until the entire room shook.

  Despite my vicious blow, the wall was far worse off than me. My knuckles weren’t even red.

  With a forced calming breath, I let my arm drop and took a stiff step back on my regulation boots.

  I was still wearing my uniform, and I jammed a thumb into my collar to loosen it, not caring as I tore the fabric.

  If I didn’t find Anna and gain her trust, everything would be ruined.

  So with one more calming breath, I centered my awareness, closed my eyes, and concentrated.

  Then with a grunt, I walked out the door.

  She couldn’t be far.

  For all her importance, she was one of the flakiest people I’d ever met.

  Breaking out of my facility had been nothing but luck. Escaping me forever would be impossible.

  With that determined thought ringing in my mind, I walked out, my heavy footfall beating like a pounding drum.

  …

  Anna Carter

  It wasn’t long before I stopped. Not because I had somehow regained control over my crazy body, but because the vision suddenly swelled in my mind.

  Pain erupted through my head, and I fell to one knee, clutching my temples as I screamed.

  A few passing aliens rushed to my side, but I staggered back, pushing them away.

  I could barely see. The vision wasn’t complete – not like the one I experienced in the police station – but it was close.

  It overlapped my vision almost seamlessly.

  I must have looked insane as I staggered around, one hand clutched on my face, the other outstretched as I tried to differentiate the world around me from the world inside my mind.

  I could hear people making frightened calls, no doubt to the police.

  There was nothing I could do but stand there and try but fail to push away the vision tearing through me.

  I could see the police. I could see them coming for me. Captain Fargo, even, chasing me down this very walkway.

  But then the vision slipped and changed.

  Now I could see myself running forward, as fast as I could, legs pelting, arms pumping, breath a constant wheeze in my chest.

  I followed the vision. I could feel my feet launch forward like shots from a gun.

  My arm jostled into someone by my side, but I didn’t fall down. I twisted around and kept running.

  I could see a building before me, both in reality and in my vision.

  There was a door.

  I reached it, slamming my palm onto a panel lodged into the wall.

  A biometric scan appeared under my hand, even though the wall had been smooth and seamless before.

  With a beep, it registered my bio scans, but the door didn’t open. “Access denied.”

  I slammed my hand back onto the scanner, a frustrated, terrified cry splitting from my lips.

  Then my hand darted back to the scanner, but this time I didn’t beat it. My fingers snarled around the edges, my nails cracking and tearing in my frenzy to tear off the casing.

  Fortunately, no one tried to stop me. I didn’t know what I would have done if they had. No, not me, the vision. If it had told me to turn around and take a swipe at them, I would have. If it told me to go for their throats and try to throw them off the railing, I would have.

  There was nothing I could do but follow.

  Finally, somehow, I managed to gain the purchase I needed to tear the casing from the wall. Rather than let it tumble to my feet, I caught it with my other hand, then brought it up and started to get into the wires.

  There was a blaring alarm, one I ignored as I continued to dig at the wires feverishly. Finally, I located one, right at the back, protected by a thin line of shielding.

  I shoved my hand toward it, ignoring the pain that blistered along my fingers as soon as I touched the electrified field.

  The shielding was obviously some kind of communications dampening field, and not designed to stop a forceful desperate hand from grabbing right through it.

  After a few more seconds of exploding pain, I managed to rip it right out of the wall.

  My hand was burnt, badly burnt, and skin would have to be replaced. But that didn’t stop me from reaching my good hand in and manipulating a few more wires.

  Finally, the door opened. I ran through it just as I heard sirens echo around the platform.

  As soon as I was through the door, thankfully it closed behind me. There was another panel by the door, and I darted toward it, manipulating it with frightening ease.

  Every second, the vision told me what to do. Every step, every minute movement of my hand.

  This had to be some bad dream, some horrifying hallucination.

  Yet even as I thought that I knew it wasn’t true.

  This was real.

  I had never felt more terrified, not even when I’d laid in my hospital bed dying 400 years ago.

  Fortunately, there was no one in the building, and as I ran through it, I figured out why. It was some kind of systems hub. It didn’t have the smooth, clean feel of the rest of the city; it was rough and poorly lit. Obviously, people only ever came in here whe
n they needed to for maintenance activities.

  Yet now I ran, feet thundering over the floor.

  I wanted to cradle my hand, but I couldn’t. That wasn’t part of the vision.

  The vision had me throttling forward, like a ship entering light speed.

  My eyes were fastened wide open, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t blink.

  My hair was a sweaty mess tapering down my neck and shoulders, and it itched where it touched the skin. I couldn’t scratch it. I couldn’t pause and lock a hand over my stomach and chest as I tried to breathe in a calming breath.

  I honestly couldn’t do anything but watch and follow.

  As I ran through the winding maze of maintenance tunnels, I paused periodically to access panels. I didn’t know what I was doing – not a clue – but my hands clearly did.

  Whenever I finished with a panel, there would be a whirring down noise, like helicopter rotors coming to rest.

  As I darted forward again, I started to mumble. It took me a few seconds to realize what I was saying.

  Short bursts of hurried, frantic words. “I’m Anna Carter. I’m Anna Carter. And I can see things. You need to help me.”

  It was like I was rehearsing what I was going to say to Illuminate Hart.

  The words trembled and broke from my lips like water running down panes of broken glass.

  Finally, I started to ascend, climbing ladders with one hand while I held my badly burnt arm against me, jamming it into the rungs for support.

  Though my mind was well and truly occupied, my last bastion of reason realized something. This was it. If this ever stopped, and I was captured, I would be thrown into prison forever.

  There would be no going back.

  A short week ago I had been terrified by the prospect of being betrothed; now that didn’t matter.

  Nothing did.

  No, my mind suddenly interrupted. Getting to Illuminate Hart mattered.

  With sweat slicking my brow, my burnt hand trembling against my chest, I staggered forward, telling the corridors and walls and panels I was Anna Carter and I could see things.

  …

  Captain Fargo

  She’d entered one of the primary maintenance towers. She’d locked us out.

  The city was on high alert.

  My technicians were working feverishly to gain access to the building, but they couldn’t.

  Miranda was a terrorist… an extremely capable one.

  She had hacking skills that could put even the most powerful and sophisticated AIs to shame.

  She couldn’t be a newfound one. If her file was correct, and she’d woken up a short number of months ago, then she had learned more about subverting the security of critical systems in those few months than I would ever be able to master in my whole life.

  Something wasn’t right, but it was useless to keep telling myself that.

  Things had gone to hell on my watch in the space of less than a day.

  Right now, all I could do was watch. Watch, and wait for the technicians to blast their way in. Once they did, I was going to find Miranda and stop her before she could finish whatever she had planned.

  …

  Lieutenant Mark Havelock

  I’d found her, or rather the police had. For some crazy reason, she was holed up in one of the main maintenance towers.

  I didn’t have time to wonder how she got there; now I knew where she was, I had to get to her before the police did.

  I still hadn’t taken off my uniform, which was risky, but it was a risk I knew I could take.

  I had friends. Other people in this universe who wanted the same thing I did and were willing to sacrifice everything for it.

  And those friends had power.

  I knew there was a warrant out for my arrest; the detestable Captain Fargo had lodged it. It didn’t matter, though. There were ways around the police.

  As I ran along one of the sky bridges, I tapped my wrist device. It was currently sending out a subtle jamming signal that would stop identity scanners from locating me. It would also obscure my appearance in any footage.

  To top things off, I had a dermal disguise holographic implant lodged just under my jaw. With a single word, it would activate, and my appearance would change.

  In the unlikely event I ran into somebody who knew me, I’d be able to change my appearance before they saw me.

  Technically, I should use the implant now. It didn’t have a limited power source or anything like that. The reason I hadn’t turned the thing on was because… I didn’t want to. Not yet. I had something to prove to this universe. I wanted to demonstrate that it wasn’t as goddamn perfect as it liked to believe.

  My psych evaluation had identified me as a needless risk taker. That was true, but it wasn’t a character default. I found power in what others shrunk away from.

  That’s why I was perfect for this task.

  The universe was relying on me, and I wouldn’t let everyone down.

  …

  Anna Carter

  I was in a daze now. I barely recognized what was going on, and only watched the vision with half a mind. It was as if the rational, aware side of my personality was shutting down from too much abuse.

  I was tired, bone tired, but there was nothing I could do to stop the feverish movements of my limbs.

  In fact, as I continued to run through the labyrinthine building, accessing panels here and there, my movements became even quicker.

  New visions flashed before my mind. Not just ones telling me how to escape, but others too.

  They flitted by, and I could barely catch hold of them, but I caught enough to realize this was some kind of practice run. Some kind of simulation. It was as if my brain was running through every possible scenario in the blink of an eye.

  It was such an incredible thought, and one I could barely comprehend as I tried to stop the feverish movements of my body.

  All of a sudden, they stopped on their own.

  I stumbled, and for a short few seconds, I regained complete control over myself.

  It was long enough for me to let out a terrified scream.

  Then I dropped to one knee as something struck me. My head jerked back, and I saw a flash of another vision. This one more complete than the half hallucinations that had torn through my mind for the past hour and a half.

  It wasn’t on the same delirious level as the vision I’d experienced about Illuminate Hart, but it was close.

  And it left me with a distinct, undeniable conclusion that I was in danger.

  I had to get off this planet. I had to get off this planet.

  That new thought echoed through my mind, growing louder and louder with every reverberating heartbeat. It felt like it shook through my body and enveloped every cell.

  I staggered back, my eyes glassing over as I stared at the vision.

  Getting to Hart no longer mattered. Not right now, anyway.

  I was in danger, critical danger, and I had to escape.

  Get off the planet, the vision screamed.

  And I screamed with it.

  Clutching two sweaty rigid hands to my head, my fingers pressing and dragging against the skin, I lurched forward.

  I looked like a wreck, like a crazy woman, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.

  Only getting off this planet did.

  I staggered through the maintenance shaft, and with every step, the vision gained more control until my hand dropped from my face and my glassy stare focused ahead. My eyes darted to the left and right, watching the vision, not my environment. I could see myself escaping.

  And escape I would.

  …

  Captain Fargo

  The impossible was happening: my technicians couldn’t get through. Nearly every data or security scientist in Cluster had been recruited to the task, but no one was successful.

  Whatever Miranda had done to lock us out of the building, the smartest minds in the universe could not reverse it.

  “A Clus
ter-wide alert has been issued,” a security officer said to me, her words nervous and jumbled. She would never have seen anything like this, at least not in the Central System – the most protected place in all the universe, aside from an Illuminate ship. “Critical personnel are being evacuated.”

  “Does that include the Illuminates and Anna Carter?” I asked, even though I knew the answer.

  She offered me a curt but still nervous nod.

  Despite the distraction of my city falling apart, I found the time to turn and search out the Illuminate tower on the horizon. My eyes narrowed and locked onto it, and sure enough, I saw a few distinct, sleek ships take off from the top of the tower.

  If I didn’t know the import of the Illuminates, I would take their evacuation as cowardly. But I knew what they did for me, for everyone, for the entire universe, so I prayed for their successful and safe departure.

  I turned, returning my attention to the maintenance tower and the terrorist within. “If we can’t break in there in another five minutes, we’re going to destroy it,” I concluded.

  The security officer spluttered but didn’t say anything.

  That maintenance tower was critical to several key processes within Cluster. But it wasn’t so critical that if I destroyed it the city would fall. If I let it stand, there was every chance the city could fall, however. Because there was every chance Miranda would find some way to undermine us all.

  …

  Anna Carter

  I had to get off this planet. I had to get off this planet.

  First, I had to get out of this building.

  I didn’t need to witness the visions flashing through my mind to know that this place would be surrounded by security. After the kerfuffle I’d made screaming and clutching at my face before I’d broken into this place, Fargo and his men would be looking for me.

  If I’d been on my own, without these scenarios twisting and turning through my mind, I would crumple to my knees, huddle into the corner, wrap my hands around my head, and give up with a whimper.

  Instead, I kept pushing forward.

  I could guarantee that every exit to this building would have a security checkpoint set up in front of it, in case I was brazen enough to walk outside. In my mind that meant there was no way to get out.

  There clearly was, however, as I could see a vision of my escape playing out in my head.

  First I made my way down to the basement. Not the bottom floor, but many, many floors underneath that.

  It didn’t take as long as it should. I seemed to know instinctively where lifts were, or ladders, or interconnecting tunnels.

  I didn’t move in a logical manner, or at least not logical to my mind. Soon I entered the basement floor, and immediately turned and charged toward a massive bank of panels on the far left wall.

  I punched my fingers into the buttons, my hands scrabbling over the controls like frantic spiders.

  I didn’t have to look at what my hands were doing; all I had to do was stare at what my hands did in my mind.

  If I’d looked crazy before, I guaranteed that now I looked like a demon from the depths of hell. A sweaty brow, my fringe stuck to it in clumps. Wide open, but dead eyes darting to and fro as they saw the unseen. My reason locked inside a frazzled, fatigued, frantically moving body.

  After several moments of punching something into the keys on the panel, I staggered back. For a brief moment, I controlled my body, and I slammed a hand over my mouth, crumpling my brow low, squeezing my eyes shut, and whimpering as if I’d just been struck.

  I had been struck. Second after second by this insane on-going vision.

  I staggered back from the wall. I turned, and ran into the middle of the room, away from the far wall.

  Then I crumpled down briefly as my legs lost the ability to stand.

  Seconds later a worrying hum built in the air. I watched the panels along the far wall start to crackle with electricity.

  They exploded, taking a massive chunk of the wall with them.

  Before I could be crushed by the roof or sliced apart by flying shrapnel, a security force-field flickered in place around me.

  It stopped chunks of the ceiling from falling down and crushing my head, it even dampened out the vibrations rattling through the floor until all I felt was a slight shake as if someone had tapped me on the shoulder lightly.

  I stared at the wall, stared at the destruction, chunks of panel scattering over the floor and trailing sparks and black swathes of carbon particles.

  Once the rubble had settled and the fire abated, the security force-field around me cut out.

  I saw myself running forward, so I scampered to my feet and I ran forward.

  I dashed through the still smoldering hole in the wall.

  No alarms blared, and I knew the reason why. It wasn’t because they didn’t work or they hadn’t been installed; I’d turned them off. Somewhere on one of the many panels I’d accessed, I’d disengaged the alarm system, among other things.

  Who knew how much damage I’d done, but whatever it was, I knew I was headed for prison.

  As powerful as that thought was, it was pushed to the back of my mind as the vision took hold again.

  The wall I’d blown up led onto a winding access tunnel, and I ran through it as if my life depended on it.

  My conscious mind started to shut down. There was no lighting in this access tunnel, and from the look of it, it was little more than a shaft that had been used to construct the tower.

  Despite the fact there was no lighting, I did not once stumble or miss my footing.

  I observed my brain go through several iterations – stumble and fall a few times, but after several iterations, the vision in my mind would settle, and it would show me how to run forward without harm.

  I didn’t want to believe what was happening to me was even possible, so I withdrew, turning in on myself, drawing into my mind as if I was falling down and drawing my arms around my body.

  I followed the tunnels, always turning and twisting, following the impulses within my mind until I came to another door with an access panel. In by now familiar style, the vision informed my fingers how to manipulate the access panel until the door opened.

  I didn’t hesitate, bursting through.

  Fortunately, the room before me wasn’t populated. It was completely empty, strewn with building equipment.

  I picked my way through it, grabbing supplies, though I had no idea what I was picking up. Devices I couldn’t identify, yet things the vision told me I needed.

  A few times I tried to reason that this couldn’t be real. That despite how immediate and intense it felt, it was a hallucination.

  It had to be a hallucination, because it wasn’t possible. Simulations that predicted the future and told you what to do could not be real.

  Yet the more I tried to convince myself it was a hallucination, the more terrified I became.

  Because it just wouldn’t stop.

  It wouldn’t stop.

  I made my way through the storeroom, hacking past every access panel I came across.

  Soon I entered a populated area.

  It must’ve been far away from the original maintenance tower, because there were no security staff in sight. Just a hurried, worried crowd. I slipped into it with ease.

  Before I could stop myself, I grabbed a cloak off a passing alien, stealing it with such quick, deft hands I swore they didn’t belong to me.

  The alien somehow didn’t notice, and within a few steps I’d furled it around my shoulders and slipped further into the crowd.

  The cloak was made of a very heavy sturdy black fabric, and it hung off my body like a tent.

  Underneath it, my hands shook, fingers clutching onto the collar of my tunic as the vision propelled me forward.

  While I hadn’t been in this future long, three years was plenty to realize how sophisticated security systems were now. I should have been picked up the moment I left the maintenance building. But I wasn’t. r />
  Biometric scanners should have identified my bio-signs. They hadn’t.

  Sophisticated security cameras should have been able to pick up my identity, even under the protection of my coat.

  They didn’t.

  The vision had taught me how to turn those scanners off. Somehow – running through millions upon millions of scenarios in my mind – it had struck upon a way to use that maintenance tower to turn off the security systems of the capital.

  That thought couldn’t sink in. It was two enormous.

  I continued through the crowd, the coat feeling like a blanket as it hung around my shoulders and face. It fell far across my eyes until only my chin and bottom lip was visible.

  I couldn’t see, but what did that matter.

  I didn’t have to.

  Eventually, I made my way through the crowd. I continued, never stopping for a rest.

  I made my way through the sky bridges to a building several blocks away.

  Somehow I dodged every security patrol, even though I could see they were thronging through the city. Yet the vision always kept them at arm’s-length, knowing where they would be and driving me elsewhere.

  When I reached my destination – a very tall tower that pierced through the cloud line – it was getting harder to stay safe. The vision was working frantically in my mind. Scenario after scenario playing out in every hundredth of a second.

  I’d never felt fatigue like this. It wasn’t only locked in my limbs; it sunk deep into my mind. I felt like I was living a lifetime in every minute.

  I started to shut down, like a part of me was descending into a vegetative state.

  Did that stop my body? No. It followed the vision. It followed the vision until I broke my way into that tower.

  There was nobody about. From the people being orderly taken through the streets I’d already guessed the city was being evacuated. I’d also already guessed the reason they were being evacuated: me.

  Me.

  Briefly, that terrifying thought threatened to crash through the control of the vision, but as soon as I stumbled, my body righted itself.

  Once upon a time, I’d thought I’d be going to prison. That wasn’t going to happen now, was it?

  I was going to be killed.

  I was threatening the security of this entire city, possibly the whole planet, and possibly Cluster too.

  If I stopped, called the authorities, and tried to explain myself, maybe, maybe they wouldn’t kill me. Yet there was no way I could stop.

  Even as I thought about it, I found myself rehearsing what I’d tell Illuminate Hart once more.

  “My name is Anna Carter. I’m Anna Carter, and I can see things. Illuminate Hart, you have to help me.” My voice was at times even and controlled, but at times cracked through with emotion.

  I plowed my way through that building, accessing the superfast lift that quickly took me to the top.

  What waited there was a hangar.

  There were no security guards or technicians, and as I staggered into the room, I saw another few simulations blast through my mind. My head twitched to the side, and I gained enough control over my hand to press it into my temple.

  Soon enough the simulations stopped, and a vision of what I had to do played instead.

  I selected a ship at the far end of the room, and I sprinted toward it, somehow ignoring the terrible cold pressure in my chest.

  I wasn’t used to this much exercise, and the body simply wasn’t designed to maintain this level of frantic activity for this long.

  Yet mine did.

  I made it to the ship.

  It was sleek, new, but small.

  If I’d been the ordinary Anna Carter, I would have had no idea how to get inside.

  The vision-assisted Anna Carter somehow did.

  She lightly patted a point along the hull, just next to an almost seamless line.

  Immediately, a biometric hologram appeared and started to scan me.

  Just when I thought it would blare an alarm, it stopped.

  A door appeared along the hull and opened inwards with a hiss of air.

  I stumbled in.

  Had I somehow done something when I’d accessed all those panels in the maintenance tower? Something that now allowed me to access this ship?

  It was a phenomenal thought. I was simple Annie Carter, a fish out of water in this wide new future. I didn’t have any skills, and most of the time I didn’t know what I was doing. And yet I knew enough about this time to realize that whatever I had done to gain access to this ship should be impossible.

  Should be, were it not for the millions upon millions of simulations running through my mind.

  I started to slow down when I entered the ship, but I didn’t stop. I made my way toward the front, stumbling into a cockpit. It was small; it was clear it was only designed to be manned by two or three crew.

  I did not know how to fly a spaceship. There were so many buttons, so many procedures, but did that matter now?

  No.

  My fingers darted across the front panel, my chin lifted high as my dead gaze darted from left to right, the vision swamping my mind as it told me how to take off.

  “Coordinates entered, security clearance accepted. Take-off procedure initiated,” the computer suddenly told me.

  My hands drew slack and tumbled off the panel, falling loose by my sides.

  My eyes rolled into the back of my head, and I slumped into the flight seat.

  I was dimly aware of a wet trickle forming over my top lip.

  My nose was bleeding.

  I couldn’t move to wipe the blood off; I couldn’t move at all.

  The fatigue caught up to me and slammed into my body like a freight train.

  With the last scrap of energy I had, I managed to pry one eye open as I locked it onto the viewscreen.

  I saw my ship take off, darting forward and through the open door of the hangar bay.

  I remained conscious as it veered to the left and I saw a slice of the city below.

  Then it tipped and shot toward the sky.

  I fell into unconsciousness.

  I wouldn’t wake until I’d reached my next destination.